Incumbent Supervisors Get Free Ride In Primary But Face General Election Opposition

Three of the eight candidates seeking election to the Gila County Board of Supervisors will be on the sidelines until after the primary. Their races will be decided in November.

In District One, Republican incumbent Tommie Cline Martin has no opposition in the Aug. 28 primary. But she’ll face unopposed Independent challenger Hallie Overman-Jackman in the primary.

Incumbent District Two Supervisor Mike Pastor is a Democrat and has no primary opposition. His race will be run in the November general election against the victor in the Republican primary that pits David Cook against Tim Humphrey.

DISTRICT ONE

Photo by Andy Towle

Tommie Martin

Tommie Martin:

Martin is running for reelection because she believes she can provide direction and leadership.

Martin said she feels the top issues facing the district are:

• The poor economy and the signif-

icant loss of real wealth from the

depressed housing market;

• Long term, major unemployment;

• Natural disasters;

• Public safety;

• and a fiscally irresponsible state

legislature.

Martin has lived in Gila County all of her life and comes from pioneer stock on both sides of her family.

She has served on the board of supervisors for eight years. Before her election, she worked for 24 years as a natural resource management educator, facilitator, consultant and advocate on both the national and international level. She also served as a legislative aide to the Arizona House Rules Committee chairman and rules attorneys and worked as a state and Congressional lobbyist for the Arizona Cattlegrowers Association and Center for Holistic Management.

Photo by Andy Towle

Hallie Overman-Jackman

Hallie Overman-Jackman

Overman-Jackman is running to increase county policy transparency, county fiscal responsibility and to address issues concerning the use of National Forest lands.

The most important issues she sees for the district are:

• county transparency;

• county fiscal responsibility;

• National Forest Service issues

related to being a better and more

responsible partner;

• and professional oversight on

county building construction (to

avoid) the waste of funds on an

unusable women’s jail.

Overman-Jackman has lived in District One of Gila County for 13 years. She owned Total Business Solutions, a payroll and tax preparation company, from 2000 to 2007 and still provides tax preparation services. She is owner and president of Hurlburt Development and Overman Land Company, through which she oversaw the engineering and development of subdivisions. Hurlburt Development was the developer on the Chilson Project on Main Street, which was put on hold in 2007 when the real estate market slumped.

Overman-Jackman has worked on several local, county and state election campaigns. She was appointed to the Town of Payson Zoning Commission, she was a board member of the Arizona Planning Association (an elected positions) from 2004 to 2007. She has also served on the boards of Payson Community Kids, Arizonans for Kids, Rim Country Rotary (she is a past president), co-chair of the Payson Electric Light Christmas Parade, Magic on the Mountain (holiday lighting for Green Valley Park) for three years, chair for the Heritage Festival in 2008 and 2009 and Payson’s 125th Rodeo Committee.

DISTRICT TWO

Mike Pastor

Mike Pastor

Since first being elected in 2008, Pastor said he has worked tirelessly to represent Gila County at both the state and federal level, making himself available to discuss issues that affect the taxpayers of Gila County such as cost shifts to the county by the state, flood mitigation and land use issues with the Forest Service and the Corps of Engineers to make sure recreationalists, ranchers, mining and constituents’ voices are heard. He continues to support community issues such as transportation and infrastructure development and economic opportunities within the district. He has provided leadership and direction for improving the efficiency of county government and has provided sound representation.

“The citizens of Gila County are entitled to a full-time working county supervisor in District Two, someone who will give his total commitment and time to improving our county and quality of life for all constituents. In these economically challenging times, we must remain innovative and accountable. I will continue to make the office of Gila County District Two both responsive and transparent,” Pastor said.

Pastor’s record of public service includes support to bring back cost-effective post-secondary education and relevant workforce training to Gila County by serving on the Gila/Pinal Workforce Investment Board. He has served on the Gila Community College District Board of Governors, nine years as an elected member of the Globe Unified School District Board, and volunteered for more than 30 years with youth organizations in Gila County.

The fallout from redistricting Gila County, forest health and flooding, plus the Legislature’s continuing cost shifts to counties are among the issues that concern him.

“With all the redistricting, Gila County will be represented by six different representatives and three different state senators, so that will be interesting. It could be a benefit, in fact I think it might be a positive,” Pastor said.

He said work with the U.S. Forest Service and Army Corps of Engineers on flooding and fire matters will continue to need to be addressed since these are ongoing issues in the county.

“Depending on what the Legislature does, we could still be dealing with shifts in costs to the county. So far we have been able to maintain the level of service residents expect, but the state legislature is always an unknown in regard to our finances,” he said.

Pastor was born and raised in Miami, Ariz., the son of Miguel H. Pastor and Josephine C. Pastor. He has been married to the former Linda DeAnda for 38 years. They have three children, Lorinda, Marcus and Joseph and eight grandchildren. Mike and his wife, Linda, currently own and operate a successful business, Linda’s Beauty Salon, in Globe.

Mike graduated from Miami High School in 1966. After serving in the United States Army during the Vietnam Era, he attended the local community college, graduating in 1979. As a life-long learner, he later attended Northern Arizona University graduating with a Bachelor’s of Science in Education in 1997 in Elementary Education and has completed course work at the graduate level at Northern Arizona University and the University of Phoenix. He worked in the local copper industry for 34 years.